Kelsang Wandu

Kelsang Wandu and his wife, Yang Chen invited us into their home. Since we were Kelsang's clients, the fact that he invited us into his home meant a great deal to us. They live in one of the TIbetan Refugee camps outside Leh. Yang Chen and her sister's parents moved there when they left Tibet in 1959. Yang Chen and her sister inheirited the house. Kelsang is from the south. He came to Leh when he was in the army and met Yang Chen. There is a great military presence in the region since it borders China and Pakistan.

Kelsang and Yang Chen live with their 3 children, 2 of whom we met. Their daughter is in boarding school. Their youngest son, Tenzing (many boys are named Tenizing after the Dalai Lama) is 7, 2 years older than Delilah. They got along famously, despite the fact that they didn't speak the same language. They mimicked each other. They had a puppy inside, as well a a large dog outside. Tenzin and I drew together. He drew a dream house that wasn't that different from his home. Perhaps a little bigger, and bigger trees. I looked through his (or his brother's) school book and read several english exercises, essays.

When we arrived it was light out, but since the windows were small it was darkish inside. The "Living Room" (our words) had a tiny 6" x 6" "sky light" letting in some natural light. Evertually a single light was turned on. There were 2 couches. We chatted with Yang Chen's sister, a teacher, while Delilah and Tenzing laughed and laughed. We were all laighing. There were two other rooms in the house: the kitchen and a bedroom.

We were served tea and crackers as Kelsang and Yang Chen carried water and cooked. I'm not sure at what point it became clear to us that our hosts would not be dining with us. Champal popped into the room to explain that is the Bhuddhist tradition of service. They served us first - bread in the shape of knots (the first raised bread we'd had in a long time) , rice, delicious greens with cheese, dahl, fresh vegetables with noodles, mutton, fresh salad, teas. Only after we finished did they eat in the kitchen on the floor. We had very mixed feeling about this, both of gratitude (the food was delicious!) and acceptance, but also discomfort and a sense of loss. We also felt like we were missing out on conversation.

I hope that we continue to correspond with Kelsang and his family. I'm getting choked up.

Yang Chen makes and sells jewelry in the passageway down a few steps across from the ATM in Leh. She taught me how to tell the difference between turquoise and plastic that imitates it (turquoise remains cool long after plastics warm to the touch). While we were there Kelsang began to wear a large coral earring that he made. Turquoise and coral are TIbetan good luck jewelry. I wish I had a photo. It was HUGE!